Harry Potter prints to help in Cedar Rapids flood recovery

Many people in Cedar Rapids wish they could wave a wand and fix flood-damaged homes and buildings. While that’s not possible, the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art is enlisting the help of a popular wizard in its recovery efforts.

Museum Communications Coordinator, Kristan Hellige says Mary GrandPre, the illustrator of the American version of the Harry Potter books, has offered to put three of her drawings that are now on display at the museum up for auction with the proceeds going to the museum flood-recovery fund.

Hellige says exhibition of GrandPré’s work has proven to be very popular. She says they are sketches that were done before being put into pastel, and they also have cover drawings for the book. Hellige says GrandPré visited Cedar Rapids and held a book signing, and said she wanted to do something to help after the flooding. The museum’s storage area had nine inches of sewage in it during the flood.

Hellige says the collection is now being stored on the second floor and the second floor galleries are closed. She says they hope to begin moving the collections back to the basement in March or April, and then reopen the second floor in June or July. Hellige says they are still working out the details of the auction of the Harry Potter drawings. For more information about the exhibit, go on-line to the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art website .